


Bail Me Out

by celeste9



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Before the Awakening - Greg Rucka
Genre: Backstory, Cuddling & Snuggling, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-06 05:39:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14050095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: “Tell me again why you’re bleeding?”“I can’t really tell you again because I dodged the question the first time you asked so--” Poe stopped at the truly impressive scowl on Karé’s face. “You wouldn’t like the answer?”





	Bail Me Out

**Author's Note:**

> For Poe Dameron Appreciation Week Day 4: Bros

Poe kept carefully still in his seat, trying to focus on Karé’s face as she tended to him, so far into his space that he could smell the lingering scent of the bar that clung to her skin and clothes. Her hair was wisping around her face, her braid hanging slightly loose. The room felt too warm but that might have just been the aftereffects of stress and anger and adrenaline.

“Tell me again why you’re bleeding?”

“I can’t really tell you again because I dodged the question the first time you asked so--” Poe stopped at the truly impressive scowl on Karé’s face. “You wouldn’t like the answer?”

“I go to the ‘fresher for one minute and you’re in the middle of a kriffing bar brawl, for fuck’s sake, Dameron.” Karé dabbed the wound on his temple with disinfectant a bit too harshly for Poe’s liking.

“Ow,” he mumbled. “Anyway, I don’t know what the big deal is, you’re bleeding, too, and you should let me--”

“I’m bleeding because of you! Like I was gonna sit and let you get your ass kicked. Though honestly I should have, serve you right, maybe you actually would’ve learned your lesson.”

“You’d never do that,” Poe said, aiming for charming, though with the way his lip was swelling he wasn’t sure he’d managed it.

Karé sighed. “Force knows why I put up with you.”

“Because you like my rakish charm and good humor?”

“Don’t push it.”

“Yeah, okay.” When Karé leaned back from him enough, Poe made a move for the icepack so he could press it to his jaw. He misjudged and nearly toppled out of the chair; Karé laughed at him but helped him rebalance anyway.

“You smell like a distillery, too, by the way. I told you not to have that weird drink.”

“That weird drink was delicious and you should have had one, too.”

“If I recall correctly you had two, so you actually drank mine for me.”

“And I enjoyed it, too.”

“Clearly,” Karé said, lips twitching. She twisted her fingers in his curls and pulled a little. “You’re gonna have to wash this blood out.”

“Later. Think I’m a little too drunk still to manage more than standing upright in the shower.” Poe touched the stain on her collar. “You were bleeding, too. Are you going to let me help you now?”

“That was from my nose.” Karé touched her fingers to her nostrils. “Stopped a while ago.”

“Okay, but--”

“You know you’re lucky Muran and Iolo are off-planet. Muran would give you his patented disappointed face and Iolo would judge.”

“Iolo always judges, and then he helps anyway.”

“Sure, but the judging. And  _ Muran." _

“I’m immune to Muran’s face now, I get it every other day.” That was a lie. Muran had this way of making Poe feel like he was five again. “He would’ve helped, too. He’s got a mean right hook.”

Karé smiled a little. “Yeah. And he’d be able to get the story behind this brawl of yours faster than I’ve been able to.”

Poe knew a hint when it hit him in the face. He sighed and leaned back in his chair, though that was a mistake because it made his vision swim. He was faintly woozy and he didn’t know if it was from the booze or the knocks to his head. Both, probably. “They disrespected Senator Organa.”

Karé’s disappointed face was almost as bad as Muran’s. “Oh, Poe. We’ve been over this.”

“You didn’t hear what they said! You would’ve--”

“You’re not going to change their minds with your fists!”

“I had to!”

Karé smacked his elbow. “No, you didn’t, and Senator Organa doesn’t need you to defend her honor anyway.”

“You would’ve hit them, too, if you’d heard,” Poe said, working himself into a sulk, crossing his arms over his chest.

The silence he was greeted with may have indicated reluctant agreement, or else it may just have meant Karé was too irritated to argue anymore.

Eventually she said, “You just can’t let it go. Anything. A couple of low-lifes say something you don’t like and you just have to jump in.” 

Poe looked away. The alcohol-induced buzz in his brain coupled with the fact he had had an enormous scaled alien smash his face into the corner of a bar counter made higher thought processes difficult at the moment. All he knew was that Leia Organa hadn’t deserved that, and Poe didn’t like bullies of any kind. 

“I mean,” he said, “I joined the Navy.”

Karé snorted. “So did I.”

“Yeah, and you’re being awfully self-righteous for someone who doesn’t always keep her head, either.”

“I’m better at it than you.”

“That’s fair,” Poe allowed. He wasn’t going to claim to be a model of restraint or perfect judgment or anything. “Anyway, I’m tired and drunk and my face hurts, so can we maybe just agree that I’m a disaster but you’re never that far behind me?”

“Fine,” Karé agreed, “as long as we’re clear that most of the time it’s because someone’s got to bail you out. Or,” she amended, “because it looks like fun.”

Laughing, Poe said, “I’ll take that.” He levered himself up out of the chair and stumbled the short distance away to the bottom bunk, where he promptly collapsed, face-first. “Ow,” he said, and dragged the icepack over, glad he had had the forethought to take it with him.

(To be honest, he had actually forgotten he was still holding it, but no one needed to know that.)

The mattress squeaked when Karé laid next to him. “I thought the bottom bunk was Iolo’s.”

“He won’t mind. We’re pals.” Poe paused. “I’ll bring the sheets to the laundry in the morning.”

“Good thinking. You really do reek.”

“I know,” Poe said, though when he snuggled against Karé, she didn’t move away. He touched her cheek gently. “You didn’t let me take care of you.”

“It’s only bruising.”

Poe passed her his icepack and she took it without prodding, faintly smiling, pressing it to her face.

“Thanks for bailing me out,” he said.

“Yeah,” Karé said quietly, and ran her hand over the back of his head until he fell asleep.


End file.
